Let me say straight off the bat; I've never been an RPG guy. When I was younger, even RPG video games didn't appeal to me. As I got older, I was becoming more interested and engaged with RPG video games. I also found that after a long day at work, they were more relaxing to play.
Fast forward a few more years into my board gaming hobby era, and RPG's have my utmost attention and curiousity. Not only because in modern day RPGs there are so many solo RPGs out there, but also because, as a health professional I admire and love the idea of using our imagination (something so few of us do in this modern world). Using our imagination is SO HEALTHY for us. I love that about RPGs.
I've saved a ton of free solo RPGs in my Google Drive to try out (eventually). One that I know I will dive into more in the near future is, Ironsworn. Last year I enjoyed creating a character, backstory etc.. but just haven't played any further ... yet.
But there was another solo RPG experience I've been wanting to explore. And this one really had my attention for two reasons:
1) It's a sports game
2) There is so much variability in terms of teams, players etc... The sky is the limit basically!
Today I experienced my first few innings of the 1-2 player game, Deadball.
W.M. Akers is obviously a bigger baseball fan than I am, but he's created a very fun game. It's a game that can be played in a "basic mode", which is what I'm trying out first. But for true lovers of the game and statisticians at heart, you can play advanced mode and get nice and deep into plenty of stats etc...
Really all you need to play Deadball is some paper, pen/pencil and some dice (D4, D6, D8, D12, D20 and D100). If you don't have those dice, you can download a free app and there you go. If you don't want to use regular paper, there's plenty of free supplement downloads with the game in the files section of the BGG forums, including a scoresheet.
Here's something I instantly loved about the game as I was reading the basic rules in the 67 pg rulebook:
-You can choose to use some of the pre-made teams in the rulebook
-You can create random players and teams using the tables provided in the rulebook
-You can use ANY current or past team in baseball you want! Real players, real stats etc.. 😮 Amazing!
Naturally when I first read this a while back, I instantly knew what team I would be using to play Deadball with: 1993 world series champs - The Toronto Blue Jays. 😀 Classic Blue Jay players there let me tell ya!
My '93 Blue Jays are playing the pre-made "Murderville Sleuths". I stopped after the third inning and the Canadian Club is down 1-0. 😏 To make it worse, we haven't even got a hit!! 🙄 But I'm really enjoying it! And this is just the basic mode!
Even in basic mode though, W.M. Akers has thought of everything! One of my favourites is the potential advantage for the pitcher if he's facing a same-sided batter. Meaning a right handed pitcher facing a right-handed batter gets a little boost in his pitching die. Same with a lefty vs a lefty. But if the pitcher is facing the opposite OR a switch hitter, no boost. So you better hope they don't hit off you! 😉
The depth you can take this game fascinates me. I have a good friend who loves baseball like I love soccer, so I'm excited to possibly introduce it to him. As W.M. Akers says; what a great way to keep the game going, even during the off season. Deadball can be played as a single game, a season, a series.. you name it. If it can be done in real life, you can do it in Deadball.
I'm so impressed. 😎 I'm a fan of this one now for sure.
Hey, Derek, have you tabled Ironsworn lately. RPG's are such large sector of the overall gamin' world, I really wanna try one. I'm on Book 5 of He Who Fights with Monsters (a LitRPG Adventure), and the main character has been powering-up his magical abilities since Book 1. Now, he is really gettin' bad-ass! Anyway, it seems akin to a, say..., Deck-Builder, but you're building your character's abilities. I'm sure you're all saying, "You're just now figuring that out", and yeah, I am. 😄 I didn't ever research RPG's to see what they even were. But I'm thinking, a Solo one with no DM could be cool. The Book Series I'm listening to (while exercising - so much less boring that way) is gettin' me psyched-up to make myself more powerful (on paper, that is 🙂).